Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!haven!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: How can I read keyboard without stopping
Keywords: curses keyboard
Message-ID: <13307@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 30 Aug 88 23:59:40 GMT
References: <813@ms3.UUCP> <1246@mcgill-vision.UUCP> <669@super.ORG>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 25

>In article <1267@ficc.UUCP> peter@ficc.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes:
>>... Wouldn't it make sense to have stat() on a terminal device return
>>the number of characters available?

In article <669@super.ORG> rminnich@super.ORG (Ronald G Minnich) writes:
>You would think so, wouldn't you.

Perhaps.  I doubt one could make much use of it, since it would change
from moment to moment, as the user types.

>Also, on most unix's you can't tell whether there are 0 bytes
>to read because of an eof or 0 bytes cause nothing is there yet. 

False (except perhaps on SysV, where read on a non-blocking descriptor
returns 0 instead of -1).

>I haven't looked lately to see if such a thing has been added; on 4.2-like
>systems you had to to shenanigans with select() and FIONREAD to determine
>that you were at EOF.

Again, false.  The only odd thing about EOF on a terminal is that it is
not `sticky', since it is (usually) caused by a human agent and not
something reliable :-) .
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris